Garage Door erratic in cold weather

My experience says that cold weather is a problem. You've got to do the balance test and adjust the springs as need. Seems like you need some more spring wrap.

Is the door made of wood? If so, does it gain moisture & increase weight?

Indiscriminate lubrication is not a good thing.....lube the roller shafts & bearing not the rollers or the tracks. Replace crappy stock rollers with BB rollers w/ nylon wheels

Tracks shoudl be clean & dry, not greasy & dirty...rollers are to roll not slide.

cheers Bob

As already noted, your first step is to make sure the door works well without the opener and that it is balanced. It should move easily an smoothly and you should be able to lift it half way and have it balance there with no assistance on your part.

My garage door gets water\\condensation between the sections and freezes in cold weather. In my case that hasn't really been a problem but does effect the way the door opens.

Check the clearance of the door with the door frame behind the weather stripping. If there is insufficient clearance, the door will bind when each panel tries to make it around the corner at the top of the door. I had to add a 1/4 inch spacer at each mount to get enough clearance because the wood shrank that much from the time that the door was mounted in the summer when it was hot and humid.

Also, if the door is wooden and you have experienced a lot of rain recently, the door may have absorbed enough water to make it difficult to impossible for the drive motor to lift the door properly.

Make sure that you are using the recommended lubrication and in the correct places as some lubricants may actually become worse than no lubrication in cold weather.

This question comes up every year around this time, so you are not alone.

What works for me is a slight increase in the up/down force of the opener. Since my forces are still comfortably in the middle of the range, and I can still stop the door myself, I feel safe increasing the force just enough to compensate for the cold weather. Come spring, I adjust them back down, just to be extra safe.

Unasked-for Tip:

Hang your opener from some rubber straps or conveyor belt material instead of connecting it directly to your joists/rafters. The noise reduction from the elimination of vibration is quite significant, especially if there is a room above the garage.

My garage door acts the same way. I attribute it the "frost heave" which raises the slab slightly and puts the door frame a little out of square.

horton had written this in response to

: Thanks, I'll try that tip. By the way, would it damage the opener if I adjust the force seasonally, just like what you have described? The door is the standard, sectional metal one and it's about 10 yrs old.

What kind of 'tune up' does it need (the opener)? For the door itself, I've done the lube and tightenings.

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